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Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Easy Taco Soup Recipe from A Pinch of Salt Lake

This Easy Taco Soup was a big hit when I made it this year for my annual New Year's Day soup party!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, February 2014.) There are some recipes that become favorites just because they're simple and use ingredients you usually have on hand, and this Easy Taco Soup that I first made years ago is a family-friendly soup I've made over and over for parties. I adapted the recipe from A Pinch of Salt Lake, a classic old cookbook published by the Junior League of Salt Lake, and this year when I made this soup again for my annual New Year's Day Soup party, I decided it was time to update this post with better photos.

Almost as fun is eating the soup is the story of how I got the cookbook years ago as a gift from a third-grade student named Nathan. I'd always wanted the book, so when he showed up at school with it one day, I was quite excited. In the honest way kids have he said, "My mom didn't think she'd ever use it." Recently I saw Nathan's mom in the grocery store and she told me he's now 17, which shows how long I've been making this soup!

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the ground beef, and cook until the meat is well-browned. Put the meat in the soup pot.

Add the other teaspoon of olive oil to frying pan, add the onions and cook until they're soft and barely starting to brown. Add the garlic, dried oregano, ground cumin, Ancho chile powder, and chile powder, and saute about a minute, until the spices are fragrant. Add the onion mixture to the soup pot. Rinse out the pan with one cup of beef broth and add that to the soup.

Add the rest of the beef broth, canned tomatoes, and beans to the soup. (I used a mixture of pinto and kidney beans, but you can use either kind you prefer.) Let soup simmer on low 45 minutes to an hour, adding a little water if needed. (I don't know why I used such a deep pot!)

You can puree some of the soup to thicken it if needed, but I thought mine was plenty thick after it had cooked for an hour.

Toppings to add to the soup:
diced avocado
grated cheddar cheese (I used Mexican Cheese Blend from Costco which is a lower fat cheese blend)
corn chips (for the kids, but not for South Beach dieters)
sour cream (use light sour cream for South Beach diet)
chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions:

Heat 1 tsp. olive oil in frying pan, add ground beef and cook until well browned, breaking into small pieces with turner as you cook it. Remove beef to large soup pot.

In same frying pan heat second tsp. of olive oil, add onions and and saute until onions are starting to soften and brown, about 3 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, cumin, Ancho chile powder, and chile powder and saute about 1 minute, or until the spices are fragrant. Add onion mixture to the soup pot, then rinse out the frying pan with 1 cup beef broth and add that to the pot.

Add the rest of broth, canned tomatoes, and canned beans. Let soup cook at very low simmer for 45 minutes to one hour, stirring occasionally and adding a bit more water if it cooks down too much. (If you want a thicker soup, cook 30 minutes, then remove a few cups of soup, puree with food processor or immersion blender and add back into the soup, then cook remaining time.) Serve hot, with toppings as desired.

With low fat ground beef, low fat cheese, light sour cream, and skipping the corn chips, this soup would be fine for any phase of the South Beach Diet. Many people don't know that beans are allowed, even for phase one, but they're considered a "good carb" on South Beach. Beans are a limited food, so don't over-do it on the serving size.

Nutritional Information?
I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and Kalyn's Kitchen earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

If you really want to go low card and healthy, use canned Black Soy Beans (I use Eden Organic brand and available in most health food sections of large supermarkets like Fred Meyers) in place of the kidney or chili beans. Black soy beans have only 8 grams of carbs and 7 grams of fiber for a net 1 carb per 1/2 cup serving. I use them as substitute beans in many recipes. You have to use a bit more spice than called for in the recipe, because the beans are somewhat flavorless and will absorb surrounding flavors. I usually try to make soups, chilies etc the day before so that all the flavors mix.

Yum and yum again! That looks sooo good, Kalyn! By the way, love the new header on your page too. Despite being Summer, it's been raining a lot over the past couple of days, so I might just grab the chance to try this recipe out.

I haven't tried the recipe yet, but my husband & I received A Pinch of Salt Lake as a wedding present. It was my favorite cookbook for a long time. I knew that anything that I made from A Pinch would be a winner. I will have to try the Taco Soup now.

Wow! What a great soup! My oldest and youngest sons loved the "scoop" option. I bought the scoop brand of corn chips and they literally used the chips as their spoons. My middle son is still developing his palate. :-) Tonight is "Cannellini Bean and Kale Soup with Ham and Sherry Vinegar" currently in the crockpot. I knew I needed to use up the rest of the Easter ham and quickly! I was low on cannellini beans, so I threw in chickpeas too. We'll see how that turns out.

I always LOVE your soup recipes, so after I stumbled upon this in the archives I made this tonight (even though using the stovetop this time of year makes the apartment crazy hot).

Because I'm vegetarian, I substituted the MorningStar soy crumbles for the beef. Also, instead of chili powder, since I had a bunch of leftover canned chipotle chilis in adobo, I minced one chili and added a tablespoon of sauce to the mixture before adding the broth. Served it with a dollop of sour cream, and a big side of roasted zucchini. It was a crazy delicious weeknight meal - thanks for the recipe!

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